Wednesday, March 11, 2015

1637 - The Pequot War

January,
1637 - John Harvey is back to Jamestown. He has been confirmed as governor of
Virginia by King Charles 1 after 18 months of enforced exile in England. John West has been appointed as acting-governor during his leave.

John Harvey was determined to make major efforts to further the
development of the city. The Assembly passed moreover during the year a law offering a plot of land with a garden to anyone who would commit to begin
construction within the next two years. This provision was for Jamestown the
starting point of a significant activity.

January,
1637 - William Bradford is elected governor of Plymouth for a 12st one year-
term

January
1637- In a sermon delivered in Boston, John Wheelwright supports the religious
influence of her sister-in-law Anne Hutchinson, introducing throughout the
colony what will be called the Antinomian Controversy. He is soon accused of
insult and revolt.

Rev. John Wheelwright (c.1676)

John Wheelwright(1592-November 15, 1679)

Hailing from Saleby, Lincolnshire,
he graduated from Cambridge University in 1618. He held the vicar position at
Bilsby from 1623 till 1633 before traveling to New England in September 1629
beside John Endecott, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It seems
that he spent winter there and was, at the time, interested in a possible move
to New Hampshire. He returned nevertheless shortly after to his parish of
Bilsby from which he was however expelled by the Church of England for non-conformism.
This penalty decided him to move permanently to America and he arrived on June
12, 1636 in Boston with his mother, his second wife and five children. Well
received by local authorities, he was in the following months appointed
minister at Mount Wollaston. All went well until, with his sister-in-law Anne
Hutchinson and Governor Henry Vane, he enters a deep controversy with the
conservatives of the colony, opposing the covenant of grace to the covenant of
works usually preached by orthodox ministers. John Wheelwright was defending
freedom of thought and expression but community rivalry was to outweigh
theological disputes anticipating the return of John Winthrop at the head of
the colony.

Anne Hutchinson

Anne Hutchinson(July 20, 1591- Aug. 20, 1643)

Born in Alford, Lincolnshire,
she was the daughter of Francis Marbury, deacon in Cambridge and of Bridget
Dryden, a descendant among others of King Edward 1 of England. Her father considered
that the clergymen of the Church of England were incapable and ignorant, what had led him to a one year-sentence.
Anne was educated at home and read the books in the family’s library. She grew
up in admiration of paternal ideals and began to argue about principles of faith
and Church authority.
She married William Hutchinson when she was 21 and listened with him to John
Cotton's sermons, a minister whose teachings raised the banner of Puritanism. Many
Protestants found that the Church that had bequeathed them King Henri VIII was
corrupt and expressed the need to purify it. Rev. John Cotton finally had to
leave England to escape persecution organized by the bishops. In order to find
in America the religious freedom that she hoped, Anne and her family emigrated
in 1634, to Massachusetts for the same reasons.
Most European settlers who had come to America thought they could practice
their own religion freely and, in some cases, impose to others. But in the
early stages, most colonies had a consistency rather close to that of their
country of origin. Puritan intolerance was ruling in Massachusetts and Connecticut
and Anne Hutchinson was considered heretical since she stated that being a
woman was a blessing, not a curse. She freely expressed in a hierarchical
context dominated by men who never heard a woman talking. She studied the Holy Bible
that she interpreted in the light of what seemed to be divine inspiration. She
generally believed in the principles of Puritan orthodoxy but was at odds with
the prevailing cultural attitudes when she talked about equality and women's
rights. She spoke with such authority that she quickly sowed confusion within
the government of the colony.

She created in particular at her home conversation groups where everyone
could speak freely about his faith but also went on other matters as damage to
Indians or the problem of slavery. She studied the Bible in-depth and her
spiritual interpretation differed widely from the one that was formally taught.

She challenged, among others, the usual reading of the story of Adam and
Eve to the extent that it was used as a pretext to accuse women of being the
cause of original sin. She also attacked the rules and laws among the Puritans
as well as the clergy authority. She subsequently attracted more and more
followers up to Henry Vane, governor of Massachusetts Bay, even receiving home
over 80 people.
The retort did not delay. Criticism first displayed in mysogine terms but Anne
did not fold. Called the modern Jezabel, she was accused of infecting women with
perverse and ignominious ideas about their dignity and their rights. Henry Vane
had to renounce his governorship in favor of John Winthrop, a tireless opponent
of her ideas who soon accused her of heresy and blasphemy. As for John Cotton,
whom she knew since he was vicar in Lincolnshire, he was first one of her fervent
supporters before retracting and become a violent opponent.

April 3,
1637 - a group of colonists from Saugus, in the Bay of Massachusetts, gets
permission from the government of Plymouth to settle down on its territory. They
found a village where are going to live about sixty families which will become
the city of Sandwich.

April, 1637
- Dorothy Talbye appears before the Court of Salem for violence against her
husband. She is condemned to be chained to a pole until she returns to
normality.

She went regularly to the church of Salem when she began to turn in on
herself and became prone to violent outbursts. Governor John Winthrop judged
that she was suffering from mental disturbance certainly caused by a devilish
influence. He ordered the involvement of the elder church members but she
refused to listen and turned upon her own husband. In July 1637, she was publicly
whipped for domestic violence. She stood then quiet before getting worse.

English forces in training at Salem

April 23,
1637 - 200 Pequot warriors led by Wangunk
sachem Sequin, attack the village of Wethersfield, in the Connecticut Valley.
They kill 6 men and 3 women, cattle, horses, and abduct the two daughters of
Abraham Swaine.

After the deadly raid operated by John Endecott in August 1636, the
Massachusetts forces had returned home leaving the Connecticut settlers deal
with angry Pequots. These had at first tried in vain to besiege Fort Saybrook
and spent the rest of winter to join villages to their cause. The Western
Niantics had sided with them but Mohegans and Narragansetts had, meanwhile, chosen
the English camp. These did’nt have any sympathy for the Pequots who had taken
over a part of their lands in 1622 and put rather their faith in Roger Williams
of Providence, whom they considered a friend and who urged them to join the
English.

For his part, Director General of New Amsterdam Woutter Van Twiller sent
a sloop from Manhattan with order to get back the two girls at any price. The
Dutch met half a dozen Pequots on the Thames River banks (Mystic River) and offered them a
ransom but they refused it. Lack of agreement, the captain decided to keep the
Indians as hostages until the girls are made safe and sound to their parents.

The Wangunks lived in the South of Hartford. Their leader Sowhaeg (Sequin) had been
in trouble with the Wetehersfield settlers, following which his tribe had to move
to Mattabesett (now Middletown).

May 1, 1637
- the representatives chosen by the English settled along the Connecticut River
hold their first General Court in Hartford.

They took decision to train a group of armed men under the command of
John Mason, from Windsor, and to declare war on the Pequots.

May 3, 1637
- Eager to confirm the revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Company charter, the
king’s Privy Council appoints Sir Ferdinando Gorges to require administrators
of the colony to return it to him

Sir Gorges set sail to Boston but was never able to carry out his duties
due to a damage in his boat.

Mystic massacre

May 26,
1637 – Mystic massacre

Captain
John Mason and a party of 400 soldiers encircle the Pequot village of Misistuck
(Mystic). They take advantage of the fact that their leader Sassacus and most
of his warriors are missing to kill more than 600 Indians, mainly women and children.

While about thirty people had already died from Indian attacks, leaders of
the Connecticut colonies had decided earlier this month to train their own troops
and appointed Captain John Mason to head them. It consisted of 90 men who were
joined by 70 Mohegan warriors. John Underhill and twenty men from Fort Saybrook
provided additional help. These new forces had from the outset tried to seize
Groton, the main Pequot village, but given up because it was well fortified.
Mistakenly thinking that the English were left to Boston, Sachem Sassacus had
decided to send his warriors to attack Hartford while John Mason had gone at
the same time to the Narragansetts to get sure of their support.

John Mason setting fire to Mystic

Arriving at the wooden palisade of Mystic, John Mason estimated they
were inside 600 to 700 Pequots, including many women and children in the
absence of Sassacus and 150 of his warriors, left to Hartford. He set fire to
the stockade and ordered the killing of all the inhabitants. There were only
seven prisoners and no more than seven Pequots managed to escape into the
woods. Narragansetts and Mohegans were dismayed by the behavior of the English forces
they judged too violent and murderous. Turned off by the horrors of the
so-called total war tactics, they preferred to go home. Mason
justified himself afterward by pleading that he had acted in the name of God
whose Pequots were enemies. He thought his mission accomplished and the troops
were disbanded after a stop at Fort Saybrook where Lieutenant Gardiner gave
them guns. Back in Mystic and horrified by the extent of the slaughter, Sassacus
and his warriors did not delay to take the warpath.

John Mason(1602 - December 19,
1675)

A former lieutenant of the English army who had fought in the
Netherlands under Thomas Fairfax's command, he emigrated to New England in 1632
and settled down in Dorchester, the representative of which he soon became at
the General Court. Elected as a " free man " on March 4, 1634, he was
appointed to a committee to locate new settlement places and to build
fortifications at Dorchester, Charlestown and Castle Island. He joined the settlers
of Massachusetts Bay eager to go further west and left in 1635 to Windsor, Connecticut,
together with John Warnham and Henry
Wolcott. Knowing his military
experience, the General Court of Connecticut chose him on May 1, 1637 to train
and commanda new 90 men-force
designed to fight the Pequots.

June, 1637 - the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies quarrel about the demarcation
of their common border. The dividing line is finally set between Hingham and
Scituate.
Duxbury is incorporated.

July 13-14, 1637 - Fairfield Swamp Fight

Appointed
by the General Court of Connecticut, captains Israel Stoughton, John Mason and
a troop of 120 men, supported by 40 Mohegans led by their sachem Uncas, destroy the Pequot
camp at Sasqua near present-day Fairfield, Connecticut.

After the Mystic massacre, Sassacus and the survivors of his tribe had
roamed one moment along the coastline. They had during their trip killed 3
white men in retaliation, butchering and hanging their bodies on trees as a
warning. They had eventually found refuge next to the Sasqua tribe which had
some 200 members.

Their village was encircled by the English soldiers and most women and
children allowed to release as well the Sasquas. Sassacus and nearly 300 Pequots
refused then to surrender. About 180 Indians were captured while 100 warriors
chose to remain with their sachem in the fight that followed. Most were killed
or drowned in the surrounding swamps but Sassacus managed however in escaping during
the night with a party of his men.
He sought help from the Mohawks not far from present-day New York but aware of
the superiority of the English, these instead decided to kill him as well as
his warriors. They sent his scalp to Hartford as a token of their friendship
with the Connecticut colony.
It was during this battle that the Pequots used firearms for the first time.

July 28,
1637 - the Pequots who were able to escape from Sasqua are slain near Mystic by
joint forces from Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The few survivors were mostly sent as slaves to Mohegan's and
Narragansett's. Some even were sent to Bermuda and the British islands of
Providence and Nevis, West Indies. The Pequot nation of which the number of
killed is estimated to 1500, was simply blown off the map and its land shared
between the winners. By showing their superior military organization, the
English impressed especially by the ferociousness of their commitment.

The Pequot War remained one of the most badly interpreted events of the
colonial period. Many documents testified the complex social, political,
diplomatic and military relationships that divided at the time, the Indian
Nations of the region. The Mohegans as much as Narragansetts chose in
particular to fight alongside the English for their own territorial ambitions.

Summer
1637- Back from a trading expedition, Richard Thompson, who owns a plantation
on Poplar Island (Talbot County, Maryland), finds on his way home the bodies of
his wife, his children and servants, killed by Indians.

August 5, 1637 - Massachusetts Indians
leaders Wibbacowett and his wife Squaw Sachem (the widow of paramount leader
Nanapashemit, killed in 1619 during the Tarratine War), Tahattawants,
Nataquatick (alias Old Man) and Karte (alias Goodman) give up Nahshawtuck hunting
grounds (present-day Concord) located 30 miles West of Boston. Simon Willard,
John Jones and Mr. Spencer, the first settlers in this area, agree to barter
with the Indians in exchange for game and raccoons (the flesh of which is
of clearly lower quality than lamb).

Wouter Van Twiller

August 30,
1637 - To meet the strife caused by the teachings of Anne Hutchinson, a synod consisted
of 25 puritan clergymen takes place in Newtown to clarify the religious
doctrine.

September 2, 1637 - Accused of mismanagement, religious intolerance and illicit
trade, Director General of the New Netherland, Wouter Van Twiller is dismissed
and replaced by merchant Willem Kieft.

Van Twiller's governship matched with the golden age of the Dutch West India Company. A string of windmills recovered then the heights of Manhattan, like a guarantee
of prosperity. It has been said that Van Twiller worked more on defending his
own interests than those of the Company, that he was profligate and dishonest
but there is actually little evidence to support these charges. He had,
however, a rather difficult life as it compensated for his friendliness and a
forceful character. He was certainly a talented agronomist and devoted himself
to the development of dairy farming, fruit growing and agriculture. He restored
the fort, built many mills. The Indians yielded him large portions of their
lands and he knew to develop trade with them. They became friends and continued
long after his leaving, to consider him as a benefactor. His knowledge of the
country and livestock allowed him, in addition, to become the biggest farmer of
New Netherlands, after "patroons". Confident in the future of the
colony, he had bought 15,000 acres of land consisting of small islands and part
of Long Island.

He maybe abused his position and too much favored including Rensselaerwijk
patroons. It is clear that while the farms of the Company hardly paid their
operational expenses, Van Twiller and some of his friends grew rich and purchased
the best lands. He eventually had against him people of common sense, then
servicemen, clergy and at last all the settlers.

Anne Hutchinson preaching at home

November
7, 1637 - after debate, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay decides to banish
Anne Hutchinson, known as a heretic and an instrument of the devil. Her accusers
include minister John Eliot, a missionary to the Indians who will translate
into Nantic the first Bible printed in America.

Considered as a woman not fit for their society, the members of
the Court ordered to put her under house arrest until following March, pending
her trial.

John Eliot(May 1604 - 1690)

Born at Widford, Hertfordshire, he studied at
Jesus College, Cambridge. Arrived to Boston on November 3, 1631 aboard the Lyon,
he was soon promoted to an instructor's position in Roxbury church, led by
Thomas Hooker.

Autum, 1637 - After several years without real government, the residents of Dover (New Hampshire) and the Piscataque form a "Combination" headed Rev. George Burdett.George Burdett was known as a representative of the church of England and his appointment was hardly palatable to nearby Puritan Massachusetts.November
12,1637 - minister John Wheelwright is sentenced to banishment by the General
Court of Massachusetts. He has to leave the colony within 14 days.

December
31, 1637 - Peter Minuit and a group of Swedish settlers leave the port of
Gotteborg aboard the Kalmar Nickel and the Fogel Grip planning to base a new colony on the Delaware River. The expedition
has been overseen by admiral Klas Fleming.

Former Director General of the New Netherlands Peter Minuit, had been
relieved of his duties in 1631 by the Dutch West India Company. He was then befriended
with Willem Usselincx, another disappointed by the Company who had informed him
of the efforts made by the Swedes to founds a colony. He concluded in 1636 an
agreement with Samuel Blommaert and the Swedish government to create the first
Scandinavian colony of the New World.This settlement which would take the
name of New Sweden will be located near the mouth of the Delaware River on a land
previously claimed by the Dutch, near present-day Wilmington.